Although the world is only just beginning to figure it out, in many ways Revelstoke is the snow sport epicenter of North America. Nearby Mt. Fidelity is home to the snowiest weather station in Canada: it receives the country’s highest annual average, 1471 cm (almost 50 feet) of snow, and the peak gets 144 days of snowfall per year, more than anywhere else in the country. The coastal areas have more precipitation, but it often falls as rain or heavy snow and doesn’t pile up with the feathery depth of Revelstoke powder.
Historically, every two decades another recreational user group discovers Revelstoke. Rogers Pass, an hour’s drive into the Selkirks to the east, has been Mecca for backcountry skiers since the fifties. Then, in the seventies, heli-skiers discovered Revelstoke’s snowy phenomenon, and snowmobilers, or ‘sledders’ as the modern incarnation call themselves, discovered the area’s vast and deep powder fields in the nineties. As of 2008, the word Revelstoke is circulating through lift lines and ski area bars around the globe. The next decade will likely see the town become a household name among downhill skiers and change the town forever.
From Bugaboo Dreams by Topher Donahue
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